TITLE : FACTORY AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT. 3RD ED.*

'As all experienced factory managers know, there are but two simple devices necessary to run a factory-a crystal ball and a magic wand. In the absence of these, the present volume is offered to those engaged in that peculiar form of juggling known as Factory Management, in the hope that it will indicate some areas of knowledge which it may be of use to study. The text is not encyclopedic, nor is it intended to be a training manual for any of the specialist disciplines: illumination is intended to be general, rather than intense.'

The above paragraph opened the Preface to both the first and second editions and as a statement of purpose it will serve to introduce this third edition, now re-titled Factory and Production Management. This edition has been re-structured to present the contents in a more logical form. It is in six sections; the first gives a perspective view over the whole of the production function. Section Two deals with the product, its choice and its qualities, and Section Three discusses the location, design, layout, equipping and maintaining of a production unit to make the product, and concludes with a discussion on the use of the budget as an organizational tool and as a summary of policy. Section Four assumes that a product is available for manufacture and a fully equipped plant to hand, and it then deals with some of the problems of manufacture and the various methods used to identify the costs incurred. No factory can operate without a time-table of some sort and this is discussed in Section Five. This is largely concerned with production and material control; buying and storekeeping are also discussed.

In the final analysis all factories, whether automated or not, operate through people, and the final section of this book deals with some of the organizational and administrative tasks which arise when employing people. No attempt is made to enter the realms of industrial sociology and psychology as these are comprehensively dealt with elsewhere, but the work of the Personnel Department, the operation of incentive schemes and the safety of the employee are discussed at some length.

A number of techniques are used in Production Management in a variety of situations; these are gathered together in the Appendices. Each chapter concludes with some suggestions for Further Reading; these do not pretend to be comprehensive but list some of the books which the author has found useful in his work as a Manager, Consultant and Teacher. Appendix 6 ('Representative Examination Questions') is considerably enlarged, and now contains over 360 questions from a wide variety of sources. The author had intended to discontinue this Appendix, but a study of examination papers obtained from most Polytechnics and Universities concerned with the teaching of 'Production Management' indicated that teachers were finding this section extremely useful, and it has accordingly been retained and amplified. Some of the questions are of considerable age, but perhaps good examination questions, like good jokes, never die.

This edition includes a number of treatments not found in the previous editions, notably: The Choice of Product (Chapter 2), The Workplace (Chapter 16), Group Technology (Chapter 18), Line of Balance (Chapter 25), Safety (Chapter 32). In addition, all other chapters have been considerably amplified to match the ever increasing ability of practising managers and students to deal with quantitative analyses. This has resulted in a general widening of subject matter and hence the change in the title of the book.

When the book was first published in 1962 it was possible to identify with some precision the examinations whose syllabuses had helped determine the form of the volume. The enormous increase in the teaching of 'management', in various forms and in diverse establishments, now makes this quite impossible. As previously, the text covers most of the 'production' work in the Diploma in Management Studies, together with parts of the examinations of various professional bodies, including the Institution of Production Engineers, the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (Diploma in Management Information). Undergraduates taking 'management' or tadministration' in their degree studies and M.Sc. or M.Tech. students who are taking 'conversion' type administration courses will also find much helpful material in the present text. No serious student, however, whether seeking for success in examinations, or at employment, should confine his reading to any single book, and attention is again directed to the suggestions for further reading which appear at the end of most chapters.

My thanks are due to my wife for her help and forbearance and to my good friend Jack Prichard for his many helpful comments. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues at the Polytechnic of Central London and at the Universities of Technology at Bradford and Loughborough. Further, I have been most fortunate in that my readers have been concerned enough to write to me pointing out where the book required amplification and/or amendment; to these and all other persons who have been of such assistance my most heartfelt thanks. Any mistakes in the book clearly I am privileged to claim as my own.

December 1973 K. G. Lockyer